The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Staff Pick

Wickedly funny, Disreputable History is Frankie's tale of scandalizing her conservative boarding school by disrupting longstanding paradigms of gender, religion, and linguistics. A clever young adult novel, this book will connect with any reader who has felt "it's just the way things are" is unfair. Social change can be hard, but Frankie shows it can also be full of devilish pranks and pizazz.Recommended by Ariel B., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:

Debate Club.

Her father's "bunny rabbit."

A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:

A knockout figure.

A sharp tongue.

A chip on her shoulder.

And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Synopsis:

About the Author

E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List, Fly on the Wall, and The Boy Book. She once portrayed both Peter Quince and a tree in a drama school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, wearing an electric-blue unitard. Her theatrical career ended soon after.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating based on 2 comments:

Anna Falconer, February 13, 2015 (view all comments by Anna Falconer)
I finished this book almost three weeks ago and I still talk to myself about it. It is FANTASTIC! In fact, it is so fantastic that it has seriously raised my standards for the books I read and I am having trouble finding titles that I enjoy (although I am enjoying myself reading Raven Speak by Diane Lee Wilson). The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is PHENOMENAL!
E Lockhart is an incredible writer with enough writing skill to make us all blind. The story details the strategist Frankie Landau-Banks's life in one of the best boarding schools in the country. Frankie is not the sort of person to 'find her place' among the people at school, but rather pick the place that everybody wants and, using a crazy awesome sequence of strategies and power-plays, put herself in that place. But getting in with this fun and rowdy group of rich boys is proving a little difficult and Frankie must resort to some serious measures that make your gut twist up in a perfect pretzel knot of "holy crap, there's something wrong with her brain" and "dang, I wish I were that clever and twisted".
I don't even know where to begin talking about E Lockhart's writing style. It is freaking AMAZING (understatement alert)! One of the best qualities of this book is that it isn't all about the story, it's about the characters and power-plays and about just being sick and twisted in general. And it's about writing. The plot has very little to do with writing (nothing at all if you take out the amazing undertone of neglected positives) but E Lockhart lets himself show off a little and the result is unparalleled!

Beverly B, July 27, 2013 (view all comments by Beverly B)
Frankie Landau-Banks is funny and diabolically clever - a dangerous combination. Genius is often misunderstood. In Frankie's case it is not misunderstood, it is ignored. Tired of being treated as the cute, funny girlfriend of the most popular boy on campus and not being seen as a whole person; tired of only being asked her opinion on trivial or gossipy topics and not included in discussions of any substance; tired of people just assuming she does not have a brain worthy of any notice, Frankie mounts an hysterically funny history making campaign of genius practical jokes. Frankie Landau-Banks is a great role model for being authentic, strong and significant.

Wickedly funny, Disreputable History is Frankie's tale of scandalizing her conservative boarding school by disrupting longstanding paradigms of gender, religion, and linguistics. A clever young adult novel, this book will connect with any reader who has felt "it's just the way things are" is unfair. Social change can be hard, but Frankie shows it can also be full of devilish pranks and pizazz.

by Ariel B.

"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
The acclaimed author of "Dramarama" and "The Boy Book" now delivers a story about a girl who goes from being mildly geeky to a teenage knockout to . . . a criminal mastermind?

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